Sunday, December 8, 2013

Approaching Cabo San Lucas

(I believe my previous post had a wind speed of 115 knots? No worries, that should have been 15. The most wind I've seen this passage so far is around 24 knots.)

I passed Mag bay last night and decided to keep on moving. The wind is still favorable and I'm feeling good. Hour to hour I keep changing my mind about whether or not to stop at Cabo San Lucas or to continue further north. In the end the decision will be left to when I arrive and the sea state, wind state and my state at the time. The water has warmed up nicely! From what I recall, as I move north up the Sea of Cortez the water starts to cool slightly again.

I'm continually surprised how far east I'm sailing. My natural thinking is that the coast is north-south and that as I head down it, I'm heading south. But I'm really heading south east. To put this in perspective, Calgary is at 114° 5' west. I'm currently around 100nm east of Calgary, still heading SE. I passed beneath Calgary two days ago, at around 10pm on the 6th. I still find this somewhat surprising, although I don't know why - the coast is what it is.

As I head toward Cabo now I'm heading more east that I have been for the last day or two. I have been sailing in mainly dense low clouds for the last three days and this morning finally passed underneath an arch of clouds that delineated the dense cloud from more patchy blue skies. My solar panels are finally starting to generate more power again - I was down 43Ah this morning (around 10%) and am now down 23Ah with the panels generating 16 amps as I type this (5min later, 9 amps, its variable.) Its nice to have free power. My wind instrument battery is also solar powered and its low voltage alarm went off last night at around 3am, although it did continue to work all night and morning. Its charging again now so I should have the convenience of knowing the exact wind strength and direction rather than estimating it. Its not required, but its useful.

About Me

I bought a boat in 2009 and over the next two and a half years got both the boat and myself ready for a longish sail. In September 2011 I left Seattle singlehanded to sail the route: Seattle; California; Mexico; Hawaii; Seattle. I stayed for a year and then left again, in 2013. That cruise lasted three years and had me visiting: California; Mexico; the Marquesas; Tuamotus; Society Islands; Beveridge Reef; Niue; Tonga; New Zealand; Minerva Reef; Tonga; Fiji; New Zealand; Hawaii and back to the Pacific Northwest where I'll stay for a while. Cruising is an amazing way of seeng the world, and I look forward to seeing some more of it in the future.